


Two Ways Natasha Could Have Survived Endgame

by paperairplanesopenwindows



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fix It, Gen, Soul Stone Nonsense, everybody lives and nobody dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-17 07:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19949539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperairplanesopenwindows/pseuds/paperairplanesopenwindows
Summary: (And the one way she did)





	Two Ways Natasha Could Have Survived Endgame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andibeth82](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andibeth82/gifts).



1\. 

An explosion rocks the building. 

Yelena cowers underneath the rope bridge on the obstacle course. Natalia, on the other hand, is not scared.

Madame had told her and Yelena to stay in the training room and had locked the door. Just a training exercise, she’d said, though her mouth had been a tight line that meant trouble. The last time Natalia had seen it was after she’d fought one of the ten year old girls, Masha, and beat her. Madame’s tight lips had been at Masha, who’d started crying. Natalia hadn’t seen Masha since. She and Yelena had both beat some of the ten year old girls and that’s why Madame had selected them special this morning. They have potential, she’d said and smiled. 

Natasha knows what that potential is. The potential to be the  _ best _ .

There’s another explosion. Yelena cowers again. Natalia glares at her. “Get up!” she says, “Madame said that it’s a training exercise.” Yelena hesitates. “Come on,” Natalia says, “Or are you  _ scared _ ?” 

The door explodes open. 

Natalia cowers then—it was stupid to do otherwise. She covers her face, but she is far enough from the door that nothing struck her, though the explosion made her ears ring. She stands up once the explosion stops, rubbing her ears in pain. 

Then, there is a man in the doorway. He is wearing all blue and there is a large round… _ thing _ on his back. He looks old. Natalia frowns at him as he entered. He moves further into the room and stops short when he saw her. She shifts her weight a little. If she was fast, she might be able to make a break for it and run past him—

Like a blur, Yelena pops out from under the obstacle course and makes a break for the door. The man reaches to grab her, but he is to slow. Yelena slips right by him and has cleared the door frame in seconds. 

Natalia scowls. That had been  _ her _ idea. She can try to run past the man, but he will be more alert. And now he is approaching her slowly. She shifts her weight again. 

Once the man gets close to her, he kneels down so they are eye to eye. “Hello there,” he says. He spoke in Russian, but it is obvious he isn’t one of them. “Are you Natalia?”

“I can speak English,” she says. 

The man chuckles. “That bad, huh?”

“Are you an American?” Natalia asks. 

“Yes,” the man says “My name’s Steve. 

“How did you know my name, Steve?”

He smiles. His smile is sad. “I was told of a girl named Natalia who was being trained here in the Red Room. She told me you were the best of the little girls.”

“Who did?” Natalia says wonderingly, “Who was it? Was it Melina?” Melina is the strongest and the fastest and she is a grown up; she goes out on missions all the time. 

“I think so,” Steve says, “One of the big girls. She told me all about you. I’ve come to take you for more training.”

“Just me? What about Yelena?” 

Steve’s forehead wrinkles. “Yelena.”

“Yelena. My sister. She was the one that ran out.”

“Oh, yes.” His forehead unwrinkles and he smiles again. “Yes, we’re bringing her for training too. Let’s go find her. Would you like to come with me to help find her?”

He holds out his hand. Natalia regards it with suspicion before carefully taking it. He doesn’t grab for her or try to stab her or hurt her in any way. He just gives her hand a friendly squeeze and lets her lead the way out of the room. 

“What were the two of you doing in that room?” Steve asks. 

“We were fighting.”

“You were? You like fighting with Yelena?’

“Yes,” Natalia says, “I like fighting. It’s one of my favorites.”

“What do you like best?” Steve asks her.

“I like ballet,” she says, “I’m the best dancer.” 

“I’m sure you are,” Steve says, smiling at her, “I know a great ballet teacher. I’ll introduce you.”

They walk out then, into the cold winter air and there’s a whole lot of yelling and running around, but Steve’s big hand keeps holding her little one until they leave the compound.

(She becomes a ballerina and she doesn’t die). 

  
2\. 

One moment she’s dust and the next moment…she’s not?

Natasha blinks up at the sky in confusion. The sun’s in the wrong place. She turns and there’s no Steve behind her. No Thanos. There is Wanda, clutching at nothing. “Vision?” she says in confused voice. She blinks up at Natasha. “I-what happened?”

An orange portal opens on the ground next to them. “Come with me,” the robed man within beckons. Natasha decides that this day might as well get weirder and pulls Wanda up and through. 

They were on a destroyed field, next to what might have been the Avengers compound, maybe. Natasha could sort of recognize it even though it was blown all to hell. There are a dozen ships and an army of aliens. 

“Did the fighting move here from Wakanda?” she asks, turning to the robed man.

“It’s been five years.”

“ _ What _ ?”

“There’s no time!  _ Go _ !”

And there is no time; there is finding her place at Steve’s side and then he is holding Thor’s hammer and then there is just vicious fighting, even as she tries to find her people on the battlefield. She is able to see Tony and what must be Pepper in a blue suit fighting together. Steve and Thor were taking on Thanos together. There is a woman who glows like the sun and another woman with swords-

She knows the woman with swords. 

“LAURA!” The scream shocks Natasha and then she’s running to her. An alien gets in her way and she shoots him, his body falling to the ground even as Laura turns to her. She’s wearing armor and she has  _ swords _ and her hair is grayer than Natasha remembers and she’s fighting like she was born to do it. She stops when she hears the scream, turning towards Natasha, her mouth falling open. 

“It’s you,” Laura gasps and for a moment there’s no battle, there’s just the two of them trying to talk over the other even as aliens descend.

“It’s been so long. Nat, it’s been-“

“You’re fighting? Who taught you how to use a sword?’

“Clint did. He taught me. We were-Natasha it’s been  _ five years _ .” 

“Where  _ is _ Clint? Is he up high?” 

Laura stabs the last alien headed their way and turns to Natasha, frantically. 

“Clint…he didn’t make it, Nat,” Laura says. There are tears collecting in her eyes and she brushes them back with a grimy hand. “I’ll explain it all later, but you were gone and the kids were gone and we had to get you back and-“

Another alien approaches. Nat shoots it and it went down. “I’ll get you back to the kids, whatever it takes.”

Laura frowns. “Please don’t die. I can’t lose anyone else.”

“I won’t,” Natasha says, “I promise.”

Laura gave a little smile. “I’ll hold you to that,” she says. 

Natasha is going to ask something else, but then a giant horse flies overhead, followed by another wave of aliens and that distracts her enough that she can’t finish their conversation.

(She keeps her promise though and doesn’t die). 

  
  


And 1.

She falls and she doesn’t even feel herself hit the bottom. Everything just sort of…dimmed. She can’t even hear Clint’s scream anymore. 

Her fall stops eventually. She feels like she’s floating. There’s a distinct feeling like water and there’s an orange glow all around. She feels content. Not a bad way to go, all things considered. Clint is strong, he’ll get the stone and be able to pull himself back up the cliff, especially with the line there. His family will be so happy to see him. She knows how much he’d missed them. She’d missed them almost as much. 

Time passes; she isn’t sure how much. Time didn’t matter here, apparently. There is just the sense of the orange around her and the feeling of contentment. Everything else just drifts away. 

Then, suddenly, she senses a feeling she can only describe as  _ Bruce _ . 

_ Bruce _ , she thinks. It’s hard, getting her mind to think straight.  _ Bruce _ . She reaches towards the feeling and it's like shifting sand; her fingers brush against it and then the feeling is gone.

It’s inconsequential. She goes back to drifting. The feeling will either return or it won’t.

And then she feels Tony. 

He feels closer, nearer than Bruce. His presence almost feels solid, like she could put her hand on it. 

She reaches out and she _ pulls _ . 

And then Tony is there, sputtering. “Nat?” he asks, blinking at her. 

“Tony!” Natasha gasps and throws her arms around him. He hugs her back, hard. 

“Nat,” he says, “We won.” 

They part and Tony looks around. “Where is this place?” he asks.

“I’m not sure,” Natasha says, “Some sort of afterlife?”

Tony snorts. “Didn’t think Heaven would be this orange.” 

“It’s probably because of the soul stone,” she says, “I’ve been here since I died. I’m assuming you’re dead too?” 

“Yeah,” Tony says, “I had to use the stones to save us from Thanos.”

“Stupid of you to die,” Natasha says, “But I’m glad we won.”

The space around them feels much more solid than before. Natasha no longer feels like she’s floating, but like she’s standing. She begins walking, Tony falling into place next to her. 

“Are we going exploring?” he asks.

Natasha squints into the distance. “I’m pretty sure it’s nothing but orange for miles and miles. But sure.”

They start to walk together into the distance, silent for a long while.

“I’m sorry about Morgan,” Natasha says.

“Yeah,” Tony sighs, “I’m…Words can’t describe how I feel about leaving her, how I won’t get to see her grow up. But I left her some recordings and Pepper’s the best mom ever. She’ll always know I loved her.”

Thinking of Morgan made her think of Clint’s kids. They’d won, which meant they had to be back. “How’s Clint?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Did you see Laura or the kids?”

“He was a wreck,” Tony says quietly. “And I didn’t get to see them before I died. I’m sure they’re fine. Clint got a call right before the battle started. That had to be Laura, right?”

“Right,” Natasha says. If all the ones that had been snapped were back, then it had all been worth it. But her heart aches at the thought of never seeing any of the Bartons again.

“They’ll be ok,” Tony says. “We’ll be ok. If I’m going to be stuck with anyone for the rest of eternity, you’re top of the list.”

Natasha laughs and they keep on walking. There seems to be no edge to the orange void they walk through and they don’t seem to get tired or hungry or thirsty. There isn’t anything else to do besides talk and catch up and see if there is a limit that can be reached. 

Once they run out of things to talk about, they just walk in silence. Again, Natasha has no sense of how much time has passed. It could be seconds or days or decades since Tony had joined her here. As she is mulling this over, she feels a very peculiar sensation, like someone is trying to pull her up by the top of her head. 

“Do you feel that?” she asks.

“Feel what?” 

“Like a pulling sensation, like being lifted up.” The pulling sensation comes again, stronger this time. She reaches out and grips Tony’s arm. “Like being pulled somewhere else.”

Tony looks frightened. “Where?”

“I don’t know,” she says, frustrated. “You can’t feel it?” 

“No,” he says. “Nat-Nat, you can’t leave me here!”

“I won’t,” she swore. She twines her arm with his as tight as possible. “I’ll take you with me. Hold on!” 

She feels the sensation give a sharp jerk and then she is flying through the orange, Tony’s arm in a death grip in her hand. The orange becomes black that seems to go on and on and then the next thing Natasha knows, she is hitting water. It went into her nose and mouth and she sits up sputtering. 

Next to her, Tony groans and splashes around. “Where are we?” he asks.

“Hell if I know,” Natasha says between coughs, wiping the water from her eyes. “Heaven stage two, maybe?”

There is a sound of splashing, like someone is running towards them and Natasha struggles to her feet. “What—” is all she manages to get out before she is being crushed into a hug by—

“Steve?” she asks.

He is babbling. “I went up the cliff and there was no one there and I had no clue what to do with the stone, but then Thanos showed up and tried to tell me to, I don’t know, make some sacrifice so then I threw it off the cliff in frustration and now I’m here and you’re here and you’re  _ alive _ .”

“It’s good to see you too, Cap,” Tony coughs.

“Tony!” Steve gasps and then he hauls Tony out of the water to hug them both at once.

“Are we alive?” Tony asks. “Or is Steve dead?”

“I’m not dead,” Steve says. “At least, I don’t think so.”

Natasha pinches him. “Ow!” Steve yelps and then glares at her.

“Just checking,” Natasha says innocently before hugging him again.

“Now what?” Tony asks.

“I guess we figure out how to get you back to Earth in 2023.”

“How?” Tony says, “We’re dead.”

“I thought you were the genius,” Natasha says. “Can’t you figure it out?”

(They return to the Avengers and they live happily ever after). 


End file.
